IPA Newspack
  • Home
  • now
  • politics
  • business
  • markets

IPA /

IPA Special

IPA Special

Rakesh Tikait Has Emerged As A Visionary Who Can Be Trusted To Build A New India

By Sushil Kutty

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait in all likelihood grew up to tales of the Tikait daredevilry at Delhi’s Boat Club when the firebrand Mahendra Singh Tikait led a 7-lakh strong army of farmers and laid siege to India Gate. Mahendra Singh Tikait left this world for the other-world leaving behind a pale shadow divided equally between sons Rakesh Tikait and his elder brother Naresh Tikait.

The ponderous Rakesh Tikait has so far been unable to match his father in the sheer electricity of his presence. The elder Tikait would have brought Delhi to a grinding halt on any day of the week and he wouldn’t have tried to disrobe the Red Fort to do that.

And then, Rakesh Tikat wept, something Mahendra Singh Tikait would have taken the cane to. The Chaudhary of the Baliyan Khap till his death, Mahendra Singh Tikait, would have instead gone to town with “Sar Katta Sakte Hain, Magar Sar Jukha Sakte Nahi.”

Rakesh Tikait is not the chip of the old block. But the Jats of Western Uttar Pradesh could not bear the insult to Jat pride. They had never seen a “Tikait cry”. So, they arrived on  tractors in the hundreds of thousands and a whole new protest was born—the rest, like they say, is history!

Rakesh Tikait stuck to his guns at Delhi’s Gazipur Border. In the glare of the TV cameras. Giving interviews and positioning himself as the sole farmers’ leader, the face of the farmers’ agitation. The value of Rakesh Tikait to the farmers’ protests was that he single handedly kept the protests alive with his antics.

The Gurnam Singh Chadunis and the Yogendra Yadavs would have gone, returned to their villages long before if it wasn’t for Rakesh Tikait. To city-slickers, Tikait is a rustic villager. To the Western Uttar Pradesh farmer he’s the Chaudhary of the Baliyan Khap whose word is law!

Actually, it is his brother Naresh Tikait who is “Chaudhary”, but Rakesh cried himself to Chaudhary-ship! December 15, 2021, Rakesh Tikait returned to his village Sisauli in Muzaffarnagar district and the villagers gave him a grand reception. Straight off he cautioned the region’s villagers at a Mahapanchayat in Kairana village—the scene of the exodus of Hindus. “It is not a palayan (exodus), it is a government plan.”

With that Rakesh Tikait is no longer farmers’ leader alone. He would have liked the farmers’ agitation to continue. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi outsmarted the opposition with the simple trick of “if you can’t beat them, join them” and repealed the three farm laws—and Rakesh Tikait and his farmer pals lost the momentum.

Now, too close to the five states’ elections, Tikait has to play his hand—it’s now or never. Tikait’s political ambitions haven’t remained hidden. He lost his deposit at earlier attempts. Now, he is back in the arena. But Rakesh Tikait is yet to decide which party/front he should ally with, the Congress or Samajwadi Party?

The Samajwadi Party is leading a front of small parties, and Rakesh Tikait, by all standards, is a “small party.” At Sisauli, his home village, back after 383 days on the road at Ghazipur crossing, Rakesh Tikait said the “andolan” continues.

Rakesh Tikait’s relevance hangs in balance and depends on “andolans.” The other kisan leaders who took part in the farmers’ protests did not yearn for political relevance or rejuvenation, except maybe Gurnam Singh Chaduni. The rest of the farmers’ leaders went back to wait for MSP to become law.

Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, however, is aware of Tikait’s yearning, and he has asked Tikait to join the Samajwadi Party and contest the elections, start what he had set out to do, which is to use the momentum to enter politics.

Tikait has now said that a “call on UP polls” will be taken after the model code of conduct is in place. Till then, Rakesh Tikait would be spreading the word in Western Uttar Pradesh that he does not like the Bharatiya Janata Party and the BJP should be defeated in Western UP.

At the Kairana ‘mahapanchayat” Rakesh Tikait warned people to be alert about BJP’s machinations. He made his intentions clear when he said the 383 days of protests so far were “training for bigger andolans” in the future. With MSP still hanging fire, Tikait will get his chance to have a go at protests again, and again. He still has a chance to do a Mahendra Singh Tikait on Delhi—prove to Jat-land once and for all that he is his father’s son! (IPA Service)

IPA Special

Modi’s Sensitivity And The ‘Game’ Petroleum Companies Play

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

IPTA Turns 80: Heralding The Biggest Cultural Movement In India

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

Africa Day On May 25 Is A Reminder That India Has Not Done Enough For This Continent

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

Indian Economy Has Resilience But Needs Special Protection For Poor

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

New Financing Model For Global Health Is Historic

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

Hardik Patel’s Political Future Still Remains Uncertain After Exit From Congress

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

Modi Government Is Still Making All Efforts To Retain Section 124A

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman’s Heady Days Are Here

May 25, 2022
Politics

Row over Rahul’s meeting with ‘anti-India’ Corbyn

May 25, 2022
Politics

SC asks Jharkhand HC to decide on probe against CM

May 25, 2022
Politics

G-23 leaders in Sonia’s key group to anchor party strategy

May 25, 2022
Politics

Chidambaram’s son alleges witch hunt in new CBI case

May 25, 2022
Business

Quad initiative to monitor Indo-Pacific maritime activities

May 25, 2022
IPA Special

U.S. Sponsored IPEF Is A Counter To Just Not China But To BRICS Also

May 24, 2022
IPA Special

Coming Biennial Elections For 57 Rajya Sabha Seats Significant

May 24, 2022
IPA Special

TRS Supremo K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s Moves On Presidential Poll Make Sense

May 24, 2022
IPA Special

Congress Unit In Uttar Pradesh Starts Implementing Udaipur Decisions

May 24, 2022
IPA Special

Bangladesh Feeling Impact Of Ukraine War On Its Exchange Rate

May 24, 2022
IPA Special

Narendra Modi Is Now Following U.S. President Joe Biden In Most Global Issues

May 24, 2022
IPA Special

Places Of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 Is Binding

May 24, 2022

An appeal

The legacy of IPA, founded by Nikhil Chakravartty, the doyen of journalism in India, to keep the flag of independent media flying high, is facing the threat of extinction due to the effect of the Covid pandemic. Only an emergency funding can avert such an eventuality. We appeal to all those who believe in the freedom of expression to contribute to this noble cause.
Click here to learn more

Share

Reply

  • 0
More on IPA

Modi’s Sensitivity And The ‘Game’ Petroleum Companies Play

May 25, 2022 4:02 pm | IPA Staff

By K Raveendran Petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri has attributed the excise cut in petroleum products to Prime Minister Modi’s ‘considered and...

IPA Special

IPTA Turns 80: Heralding The Biggest Cultural Movement In India

May 25, 2022 4:00 pm | IPA Staff

By Nitya Chakraborty Eight decades ago, on May 25, 1943, an unprecedented cultural development took place in Bombay at the Sundari Bai Hall. The Indian...

IPA Special

Africa Day On May 25 Is A Reminder That India Has Not Done Enough For This Continent

May 25, 2022 3:58 pm | IPA Staff

By Sushil Kutty One can be forgiven for coming to the hasty conclusion that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is another Modi-bot in the long...

IPA Special

Indian Economy Has Resilience But Needs Special Protection For Poor

May 25, 2022 3:56 pm | IPA Staff

By K R Sudhaman The global economy is facing unprecedented economic challenges driven by high inflation in practically all major economies and there are fears...

IPA Special

Modi’s Sensitivity And The ‘Game’ Petroleum Companies Play

in IPA Special
May 25, 2022   ·  

IPTA Turns 80: Heralding The Biggest Cultural Movement In India

in IPA Special
May 25, 2022   ·  

Africa Day On May 25 Is A Reminder That India Has Not Done Enough For This Continent

in IPA Special
May 25, 2022   ·  

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Follow us on
Up Next: Farmers Are Yet To Get All Their Demands Conceded By Modi Government
©2020 -2021 India Press Agency, All Rights Reserved
Newspack by India Press Agency
Posting....
logo
  • Home
  • now
  • politics
  • business
  • markets